At first glance, the annual Trike-A-Thon may strike you as merely a charity event hosted by the ONU Honors Program. The Trike-A-Thon is an event focused on teaching bike safety to kids, while simultaneously reaching out to the community to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The students in the Honors Program help create and set up an obstacle course for kids at the Early Childhood Development Center to enjoy.
While the donation aspect is one of the major motivating factors of this event, it is the sense of camaraderie and teamwork it builds that is truly the foundation for the work that happens. The Trike-A-Thon serves as the first group service project for the first-year Honors students and lays the groundwork for them to learn the communication and teamwork skills they need to be successful throughout their college careers.
For students entering college for the first time, classes and the associated workload can be intimidating. The Honors Program gives students the opportunity to connect with others in their majors and in their classes. This allows students to form meaningful bonds with their peers and make connections with people in the program they otherwise would not have had the opportunity to meet. Director of the Honors Program Jennifer Moore, Ph.D., states:
“The Trike-A-Thon creates a sense of cohesion for the freshman honors cohort, giving them an opportunity to meet people they never would have talked to before.”
The Trike-A-Thon itself offers a large variety of ways to connect, whether it be through organizing with a team or helping set up on the day of the event, which includes decorating the course and setting up side activities for kids who prefer not to ride. As the first big event the Honors students are a part of, the organization leading up to it is a constructive way for students to get to know each other.
Not only does this charity event foster connection but it provides a supportive foundation for students to grow their educational and leadership skills. The supportive and educational environment of the Honors Program during the members first big event grants students the access to develop healthy learning mechanisms and study habits, as well as obtain skills that will be necessary for their future career paths. From coordinating the tiniest details of this event to the ways they spread the message to the set up on the day of, the Trike-A-Thon gives students a preview of the responsibilities they will face in the real world. It is a hands-on learning experience that empowers students to nurture their own skills and talents in ways they could not have imagined.
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the Trike-A-Thon is that it gives students an inside view of what the ONU Honors Program is really about. Academic excellence is only one cornerstone of this program, but the Trike-A-Thon shines a whole new light on the values of service and community engagement.
Rallying up kids from the Early Childhood Development Center to teach them all about bike safety and allow them to have a fun morning on the obstacle course can be a truly rewarding experience, but the end goal of this event is to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Moore states, “All of this together helps benefit child cancer research, so even though it can be hard and get messy it helps give back to the community and the causes we care about.”
Allowing first-year Honors students to help plan and coordinate this tradition every year enables them to see the true values and ideas behind the Honors Program at Ohio Northern. While the Trike-A-Thon may only last a day, it is substantial in shaping the skills and connections the first-year students in the Honors Program will develop.